“Padre dear,” the child murmured, “it is nice out here under the stars––and I want to be with you––I love you––love you––” The whisper died away, and the child slept on his arm.
“Perfect love casteth out fear.”
CHAPTER 20
Dawn brought Juan Mendoza and Pedro Cárdenas again to the hill, and with them came others. “Mateo Gil, Pablo Polo, and Juanita Gomez are sick, Padre,” announced Mendoza, the spokesman. “They ask for the last sacrament. You could come down and give it to them, and then return to the hill, is it not so?”
“Yes,” assented Josè, “I will come.”
“And, Padre,” continued Mendoza, “we talked it over last night, after Amado Sanchez died, and we think it would help if you said a Mass for us in the church to-day.”
“I will do so this afternoon, after I have visited the sick,” he replied pityingly.
Mendoza hesitated. Then––